Gospel of February 1, 2021 with the comment of Pope Francis

READING OF THE DAY
From the letter to the Jews
Heb 11,32-40

Brothers, what else will I say? I would miss the time if I wanted to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuele and the prophets; by faith, they conquered kingdoms, exercised justice, obtained what was promised, shut the jaws of lions, extinguished the violence of fire, escaped the blade of the sword, drew strength from their weakness, became strong in war, repelled invasions of foreigners.

Some women got their dead back by resurrection. Others, then, were tortured, not accepting the liberation offered to them, to obtain a better resurrection. Finally, others suffered insults and scourges, chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, tortured, cut in two, killed by the sword, walked around covered in sheep and goat skins, needy, troubled, mistreated - of them the world was not worthy! -, wandering through the deserts, on the mountains, among the caves and caverns of the earth.

All of these, despite having been approved because of their faith, did not obtain what was promised to them: for God had arranged something better for us, so that they would not obtain perfection without us.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY
From the Gospel according to Mark
Mc 5,1-20

At that time, Jesus and his disciples reached the other side of the sea, in the land of the Gerasenes. When he got out of the boat, a man who was possessed by an impure spirit met him immediately from the tombs.

He had his home among the graves and no one could keep him bound, not even with chains, because he had been bound with fetters and chains several times, but he had broken the chains and broken the fetters, and no one could tame him anymore. Continuously, night and day, among the graves and on the mountains, he shouted and beat himself with stones.
Seen Jesus from afar, he ran, threw himself at his feet and, shouting with a loud voice, said: «What do you want from me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore you, in the name of God, do not torment me! ». In fact, he said to him: "Get out of this man, impure spirit!" And he asked him: "What is your name?" "My name is Legion - he replied - because we are many". And he begged him insistently not to drive them out of the country.

There was a large herd of pigs grazing there on the mountain. And they implored him: "Send us to those pigs, so that we may enter them." He let him. And the unclean spirits, having gone out, entered the swine, and the herd rushed off the cliff into the sea; there were about two thousand and they drowned in the sea.

Their herdsmen then fled, took the news to the city and the countryside, and people came to see what had happened. They came to Jesus, they saw the demoniac sitting, dressed and sane, he who had been possessed by the Legion, and they were afraid. Those who had seen explained to them what had happened to the demon and the fact of the pigs. And they began to beg him to leave their territory.

As he got back into the boat, the one who had been possessed begged him to stay with him. He did not allow it, but said to him: "Go to your house, go to your house, tell them what the Lord has done to you and the mercy he had for you." He went away and began to proclaim for the Decapolis what Jesus had done for him and everyone was amazed.

WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
We ask for the wisdom not to let ourselves be trapped by the spirit of the world, which will always make us polite proposals, civil proposals, good proposals but behind them there is precisely the denial of the fact that the Word came in the flesh, of the Incarnation of the Word. Which in the end is what scandalizes those who persecute Jesus, is what destroys the work of the devil. (Homily of Santa Marta of 1 June 2013)